For all their architectural merits, the shortlisted projects for this year's Neave Brown award cannot escape the problems that continue to plague the British housing sector writes Kaye Stout, chair of the jury panel for the recently announced prize.

Chairing the Neave Brown Award for Housing 2022 was a privilege and one I will always be grateful for. The judging experience, however, while rewarding in so many ways ? great people, great buildings, and let's be honest, there is no hardship in joining guided tours of Britain's best residential architecture ? was also a disorientating affair.
Before his death in 2018, the man the award is named after was the only living architect to have all of his UK housing schemes listed. Brown's commitment to social housing as a societal necessity and driver of transformational architecture has for years provided me and my colleagues with the kind of inspiration this sector needs. Why shouldn't mass housing be where architectural design's true worth is allowed to properly flourish" The architectural skill would have delighted Brown, but what is it being brought to bear on"
I work in this field. I'm more than familiar with the hoops that even Sonic the Hedgehog would struggle to leap through. Nevertheless, since handing the prize to Simon Henley of Henley Halebrown, for 333 Kingsland Road ? 68 flats with an adjoining free school for primary age children ? it's hard not to wonder what Neave himself would think of this award, in his...